The Taste of Old was just as curious as on my last visit. A bar strictly designed to be as inclusive to the various Fallen as could be managed. Of course, with the awkward timeframe that was brunch and the need to avoid going outside due to the chance of getting attacked by the rain, the only people inside were the bartender and the Nash group I'd come looking for.

Blobby immediately parted, heading towards the kitchen where I wouldn't have been surprised if the slime had an arrangement to snag some more food. Out of courtesy, the smallest Blobite I'd ever seen stuck to my leg and accompanied me to the low, metal-floored section occupied by satyrs. That has to be intentional. I don't know how I missed that before.

"It seems you can at least be trusted to follow your own word," Sharon said, huffing as she popped a blueberry in her mouth. The rest of the satyr were eating a variety of salads with an impressive amount of different toppings.

"Like I said, had something to do. Plus, the Parade set me up with a fast means of travel," I said, poking the slime that was clinging to my hip like the world’s goopiest fanny pack. "So, how are we going about this? Got some archaic wisdom to throw my way before we fight a literal hurricane?"

"Mouth on this one," Sharon mumbled, but rose to her feet. "First I am going to save the janitor some time due to a very disrespectful giant."

Sharon stamped her staff on the ground, the blue light at the head flaring for a moment as the moisture on my clothes got pulled into an orb. She proceeded to poke it, popping the whole thing like a bubble and absorbing it into her staff at the same time.

"Handy. Not all of us have magic water powers, if you didn't know."

"You think that hunk of rock on your back can't do something about it? Is the only thing you think it's useful for bashing things or something?"

"It's also good at cutting things," I said, drawing a groan from the woman before I decided to get serious. If she was willing to share how she was managing to cast magic her non-Fallen form-- or even Attunement-- couldn't do then I could handle some barbs. "But no, I know Fievil can do more but I haven't had a whole lot of time to really dig in. What with the local festivities and all the tendrils that have been trying to off me."

The satyrs at the table stilled at my words, but Sharon waved them off. "I know you have more bones to pick than I have cares to give, Mr. Ronan. However, if you are to make a difference in this engagement I need you concentrated on what I am going to teach you. Sargon was a shit student, so I hope you will be a bit better about this."

"The Elemental also has a Shard item?" I asked, concerned.

"He wasn't always an elemental, but yes. Us big wigs think it’s the reason he remained so... human, let's say, through his transformation. Elementalization is a... violent process. But that's neither here nor there. If you take enough of a load off my shoulders I might answer some more of your pointed questions before the Conference, but we are going to be busy enough as is. Now, Shard items, huh?"

"I assume you call them something else," I said, releasing Fievil and resting it on my bare foot. Something close to static built in the air as the staff and axe-hammer were brought closer than ever.

"Solid chunks of magic. Same as those the Clansmen and Zebelos keep inside their Condensors," Sharon said, eyeing the head of her staff before turning back to me. "Let us take this outside before our magical companions throw a fit."

"Grandmother," one of the satyr jumped to their feet before Sharon bonked them on the head, forcing them to plop into their seat.

"Stay. If this one here had any ill will we would have already been fighting. I am not so useless that you need to hold my hand. Now, finish your greens or you'll get more than a tap on the head."

The satyr rubbed at his head, mumbling something along the lines of 'that wasn't no tap' before stuffing a forkful of salad in his mouth and getting giggles sent his way by the others. Sharon led me out back, giving the bartender a nod. There was a small fenced in area behind the building, with the opposite building making up the back 'wall' of the space. There wasn't much there other than a few crates of vegetables and an honest to goodness coop full of chicken. I was curious about the seemingly mundane animals, but a thump from the Shaman's staff drew my attention again.

"Show me the field of your domain," Sharon said.

"Hmmm." The alternate naming for things was going to get annoying quick, but I could hardly blame her for that. With a flex of will, and an instruction to expend his own mana while mine recovered, Fievil let loose his Arcane Sink. Sharon's eyes flashed, one sapphire blue and the other slate grey, before she tilted her head to the side.

"You aren't paying the cost for your domain." It wasn't a question, so I didn't say anything. She continued after tilting her head in the other direction. "Can you communicate with your weapon?"

"Pretty much since I got it," I said. "Is that weird?"

"Contrary to how much experience I have, it isn't with multiple magic items," the Shaman said, as if that explained it all. "Can you take over the cost?"

All it took was a nudge, and a grunt from me as my low mana pool started to drain again, to get Fievil pulling from me. Sharon's eyes flashed again, before she waved me off. "Good, at least you can work with your... Shard. That leaves two things. For you to pull from your Shard, and for them to manifest enough to help you fight."

"Come again? I can pull mana from Fievil?"

Instead of answering me, Sharon thumped her staff again and a localized swirling storm pushed the rain from where I'd failed to notice she'd been keeping it back already. The storm of blue-grey reached me and I felt the distinct discomfort of knowing I was not in an Earth mana domain. That it had Air in it only made it more uncomfortable. Sharon didn't seem to strain in the least as her staff unleashed an Arcane Sink easily three times the size of mine. The additionally impressive thing about that was that she shaped it and stretched it further by turning it into an umbrella rather than a dome.

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"I'm not sure what those fancy computers in your head tell you, but this is what happens when you listen to nature long enough to understand it. The boundaries of the Shard items are only as far as your understanding, willpower and patience can go. My hippocampus and hawk feed off my energy and they, in turn, funnel it back into me for the sake of using it. The more metaphysical side of things is all on them, but I shoulder the strain."

The staff, which looked more like a walking stick than anything holding mystical power, rippled as the head peeled back. The Shards, pinky-thin slivers instead of a chunk like Fievil's had been, glimmered like perfect gems of selenite and lapis lazuli. That static feeling I'd felt earlier returned en force and I watched as the Shards twisted in a direction that didn't exist in reality. In their place appeared a double-headed totem with a horse and bird head composed entirely of ice and cloud-stuff so compressed that Billy would have struggled to make it. Both heads pivoted, turning to look at me with eyes that held too much intelligence for my liking.

"This is the welp, huh? A stiff breeze will wipe him out," the hawk cawed.

"Hardly true. You just dislike his arcane companions," the horse gurgled.

"Time for a visitation," Sharon said, her voice shaky. A bead of sweat fell from her brow. "You can snark when I don't have to pay for your vacation."

"We just got here--" The hawk didn't have any more time before the horse head bumped it and both swirled through the air until they collided with Fievil. The static grew loud enough to be painful, eliciting a shout of alarm from me before it vanished. Along with the persistent presence of Fievil in the back of my mind.

"What did you do!?" I asked in alarm as I hefted my axe-hammer. And heft it I did. The Ballast Trait of the weapon was also deactivated. The caramel colored light that glowed through the weapon was strobing up and down the length of the haft and the weapon head.

"Easiest way to learn is by jumping off the deep end," Sharon said, straightening. Despite the lecturing tone she had, her eyes were squinted looking at my hammer. "How does your hammer have so much mana? I was expecting to have to keep paying the cost."

"I'll answer your question if you give me a straight answer for mine!" I said, striding closer to the shaman. She rolled her eyes.

"Totem manifestation," she said. "What you saw of the beings that live in the essence rocks... Shards, whatever, took a decade by itself. When I got a hold of the second one, I used the first to get them to behave while I mediated their arguments. Having two voices in your head at all times is not a fun experience, let me tell you."

"So you are what, having them say hello so that Fievil will behave?"

"That's what I planned to, but it seems they have other ideas. Your Totem seems particularly solid for someone that hasn't interacted with a lot of elementals."

"Well, Fievil kind of ate part of one of the ones that attacked us, is that it?"

"Hmmm, could be some of it, but it wouldn't be this stable unless it had a good core for its ego," Sharon said, frowning as the light within my hammer slowly stabilized. "We'll have to see where their meeting leaves us. You might be more useful than even I'd hoped."

"Thanks," I said dryly.

"Don't give me that lip, boy. I was old before the world went to shit; if I want to make an assessment of how useful you are going to be then I sure as shit am going to do so. Now be quiet, they are coming back!"

Sure enough, like a reverse drain the water and air totems swirled out of my hammer. The thing that left me doing a double take was the mole head they brought out with them. Dripping muddy sludge, Fievil's mole head hovered like a ghostly outline before drifting over and bumping into Blobby. The slime seemed to sense or recognize the Shard's Totem and poked it back with a little appendage before resuming its cling. With how close the mole head was, I could tell it wasn't as corporeal as the Sharon's Totems but it was a long ways from just existing in my head. Still speechless, Fievil hovered to eye level before headbutting me. Once again I had the strange experience of the world twisting in a direction beyond the ones I was used to as we made contact.

After that synesthetic mess, the hovering mole head returned to its Shard. The mental connection I had with the weapon returned in full, but I could feel it snoozing of all things.

"Well, well, well," Sharon said, glancing at her Totems. Her Totems which she didn't seem to be struggling to maintain and I was still seeing even with the head of her staff enclosed. "Maybe you do have an ear for nature's whispers after all, mud boy."

"Care to explain or is this just 'waste Ron's time with cryptic statements hour'?"

"Ha! I'll give it to you this time. I am actually impressed. Whatever nonsense you've been doing swinging that axe around bonded you quite firmly with the Totem. Or perhaps you have a knack for bridging connections. You are seeing into what I call the dimension of mana, Ronan. Nifty benefit of being friends with entities composed entirely of that, don't you think?"

The Shaman's words --one in particular if I was honest-- made more sense than she realized as the pieces quickly fell into place in my head. Totems and Entities. Domains and Influence. Dreg and Pith. The dichotomy of magic was right there all along, I was just too focused on the practical applications to broaden my understanding. The two sides of the coin that should keep the balance in an Attuned Earth.

The Shards only started to form in Wildwood until the influence of the Aberrants was pushed back. The Territories owned by Dungeon Bosses limited the expansion of the Aberrants, and what were the free Entities but 'human' Territories. The elementalization was not a... positive thing but it certainly seemed a better alternative to warping while becoming a Tendril. As for the beasts... a sturgeon the size of a bus was no joke, but neither was a plane sized crow intent on crop dusting people with literal death. The surface was a violent place, but where in nature was that not the case? Who could expect anything else if you threw magic in the mix.

"Was that such a big revelation?" the hawk Totem stage whispered.

"If I had to guess he's growing some more brain wrinkles," the hippocampus replied, nodding sagely.

"Enough out of you two!" Sharon huffed, swiping her staff through the air and through them enough that they vanished back into the Shard staff. "It is a touchy subject that most people aren't aware of."

"Sorry," I said, shaking my head and scratching at my beard. "Your Totems weren't too far off. I'm going to let that percolate in the back of my mind for a minute before I say anything. I've already upset the balance enough without opening my mouth."

"Ohhh, wizened up now, have you? Good, let's leverage some of that then. I think you are ready for the practical part of this whole arrangement. We are going south east!"

Sharon didn't wait any further, striding past me and back into the Taste of Old. It took me a second to process she wasn't going to elaborate, enough for a chicken and I to make eye contact, before I secured Fievil to my back and followed after her. As much snark as I was giving the old woman, if all she'd taught me was the connection between Shards and Entities I would have been more than willing to help her out.

It was true what they said. Your elders are founts of knowledge, even when they don't know the knowledge they are spewing!